


Pint

by yeaka



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 15:24:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16390259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeaka/pseuds/yeaka
Summary: Terra finds Ventus in the Castle of Dreams.





	Pint

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don’t own Kingdom Hearts or any of its contents, and I’m not making any money off this.

There’s another pearl hiding under the couch, or at least, what Jaq says is a pearl—it looks just like any other bead to Ventus. Not that he’d know. He doesn’t have a whole lot of outfit experience, although he feels more qualified that Jaq simply by default—the clothes here are so _simple_ compared to what Ventus is used to. The humans he’s seen are practically naked. Their dresses are big, weirdly shaped, but colour blocked in plain lines without any trim, and he’s now small enough to appreciate the total lack of detail. He’s going to make Cinderella’s dress so much _better_.

He rolls the massive pearl-bead to the very edge of the shadow, then peers out into the room beyond—he can’t see, or smell or hear, the enormous, angry-looking cat anywhere. Under normal circumstances, Ventus likes cats. But it’s a different story when he’s the size of a mouse and the particular cat has poor manners. 

Satisfied that he’s safe, Ventus hikes up the pearl and starts across the room, headed right for the little hole in the wall that’ll shortcut him up to Cinderella’s room. Which seems to be in the attic. Which totally isn’t _fair_ , given that Ventus has seen much better, nicer rooms that she could have for her bedroom, but this whole world isn’t _fair_.

He’s halfway to the hole when he hears the door open and the loud stomp of a shoe hitting the floor. The wood even seems to tremble underneath him. He looks over automatically, already knowing it can’t be Cinderella—her footsteps are feather-light and whisper-soft. The heavy boot doesn’t belong to any of her ‘family’ members either—Ventus would know that foot anywhere, even though the proportions are wildly different than what he’s used to.

He actually drops the pearl in surprise. It goes rolling away from him, nudging up and stopping against a discarded sock. Ventus cries out, “Terra!”

Terra wasn’t looking down, but he does as soon as he hears the squeak, and his eyes go wide when they land on Ventus. Ventus waves wildly, knowing how insignificant he’s become. Terra crosses the room in a tenth of the time it would take Ventus. Then he kneels down, looming over Ventus like some massive titan, and he scoops Ventus right up. Ventus’ knees buckle against the back of Terra’s pinky, and he falls into Terra’s palm. Terra plucks the pearl up with his other hand, taking both all the way up to his face. He’s _huge_. Ventus can see every one of his pores, and all the little blue flecks inside his eyes. Terra asks, “What happened?”

The timber of his voice is quiet, but it still booms in Ventus’ ears, rumbling right through him. It’s disorienting, but in a strangely thrilling way—it’s so _new_ , and isn’t this what Ventus secretly wanted? To see new, exciting things? He’s in a whole new world, and now he has his favourite slice of his own one, but filtered through an entirely different perspective. But he can’t answer how or why it happened, so he just shrugs. “Dunno; I just showed up this way.” Terra’s eyebrows knit together with concern, but Ventus reassures him, “It’s okay, I’m fine!”

Terra doesn’t look convinced. But he doesn’t pursue it, just looks over at the pearl and asks, “What’re you doing with this?”

“Fixing Cinderella’s dress.” Naturally, Terra just looks even more confused. When Ventus steps back from it, it is a pretty odd situation. He tries to explain, “There’s this girl here, Cinderella—she’s super nice. But her stepmother and stepsisters are awful to her! They keep making her do all their chores, so she won’t have time to make a cool dress for the ball—oh, yeah, there’s this ball coming up at the castle, and she really wants to go, so Jaq and I are trying to help!”

Despite the surety in Ventus’ voice that it’s all going to be okay, Terra’s frowning. “Why doesn’t this Cinderella just tell them to do their own chores? If they treat her badly, she shouldn’t be helping them.”

Ventus’ smile abruptly drops. Somehow, he hadn’t quite looked at it that way—he’d just been so dazzled by how pure and sweet Cinderella was. It made sense, hearing her sing and watching her smile, that she would just be _kind_ no matter what. Ventus opens his mouth to say she that dreams of better things, but when he thinks about it now, _dreaming_ doesn’t seem like a reason to let reality crush her. 

At a loss, Ventus can only scratch the back of his head and explain, “I... don’t really know the whole situation, I guess. Maybe she’s just been put down by them so much, she doesn’t feel like she can stand up to them...?” But that makes Ventus think _he_ should be doing something, instead of just making a pretty dress. Then again, he’s no bigger than a shoe. There’s not much he _can_ do.

Terra seems to sympathize. He slowly admits, “Well, we’re not really supposed to interfere that much with other worlds anyway... besides, we’ve got our own problems.”

That snaps Ventus back to attention. He pushes back up to his feet, which shouldn’t be easy on the uneven surface of Terra’s palm, but Terra holds him so steady that he manages. “What’s happened?”

With an utterly grave expression, Terra tells him, “My best friend’s been turned into a pipsqueak.” 

“Pfft!” Ventus laughs, wanting to shove Terra playfully, but he can’t because his arms are too tiny to reach. “You scared me! But I’ll be normal when we leave again, right?”

“I hope not,” Terra answers, popping a lopsided grin. “You’re kinda cute this way.”

Ventus can only splutter, blushing a furious pink, while Terra chuckles.

“And hey, you’re an even better reminder of friendship than Aqua’s wayfinder! Now I can keep the real deal in my pocket wherever I go.”

“ _Ter-rrra_ ,” Ventus groans. Terra laughs again, full and hearty. 

“Alright, come on, bud. Let’s have a look at this dress of yours.” And sure enough, he moves Ventus over to his pant pocket, which Ventus begrudgingly climbs into—he’s sure Terra can actually walk him there much faster than his own little legs can. And Terra’s pocket _is_ kinda comfy. 

Pearl safely nestled in the other one, they go to help a friend.


End file.
